Shadow and Silver
by hellthunder
Summary: Two young Novices, as different as silk and sand. One holy and righteous in every way, the other reckless and irresponsible. When fate dumps them together, who knows what will happen...
1. Brave New Novice

Note

This story is posted by the same author going by the pen name of "City of Angels" at Fiction Press so don't assume either of my split personalities of plagiarizing each other. Thanks.

Copyrights

I do not own Ragnarok Online. However, I do own the rights to this story, the title "Shadow and Silver" and the Characters "Lemora Vivian Cleaves" and "Jake Zamoria"

"Here you go, lil' Poring. Enjoy your meal." Lemora Vivian Cleaves loved feeding her father's pet Poring. Everything about the little red jelly-like blob was soooo cute!! She laughed joyfully at how the apple juice swirled around in the Poring's translucent body before slowly disappearing, spread to every part of the Poring's soft round body.  
She walked into her bedroom and let out a groan. Her eyes traveled to the various Rosaries and crucifixes hanging on the walls, the posters preaching of holiness and righteousness, and her thoughts immediately went back to her goal: To join the ranks of the Acolytes. To don that light beige uniform, to heal and aid others, and to transport people to their destinations. She would be totally overrun by offers to join parties and guilds due to the healing powers only Acolytes and Crusaders were taught.  
"Sigh, still such a long way to job level 10." What she really needed was someone to tank her. (Tanking means getting someone to help you train by allowing the monster to focus its attention on him and in so doing, prevent the person being tanked from getting damage. The tanker would usually be a person of a much higher level than the person being tanked.) But finding a person willing to tank such a low-level Novice would be incredibly rare. Her best chance would be to get someone to create a party with her and help her kill monsters.  
She heaved herself out of her bed and walked onto the busy, Merchant- infested streets of Prontera, the capital city of Rune-Midgard. She saw a female priest with a blue aura around her, signifying she was one of the best trained people in the whole of Rune-Midgard. Lemora stared at the pretty young Priest enviously, both of her looks and her profession. "Warp Portal!!" The priest started casting a Warp Portal: a portal which other people could enter to warp to other places.  
Out of curiousity, Lemora started walking towards the Warp Portal, wondering where it would bring her. She had often been warped to dangerous places such as Glast Heim and Turtle Island, and had to be saved by her parents on various occasions. She entered the portal in a flash of blue light and found herself standing on a hot sandy round surrounded by tents, and she could hear the strains of lutes and drums.  
She must be in Morroc, the city of the desert. Lemora clutched her purse nervously. Morroc was the birthplace of thieves, and the city had a nasty reputation of leaving tourists penniless. At least she had a better chance of finding help here, as thieves (and would-be ones) were less picky about teammates, often worrying whether their teammates were loaded with Zeny or not.  
She slung her mace over her shoulder for protection and started walking through the sandy, yet strangely romantic streets of Morroc.


	2. The different Thief

"Argh! Get it offa me! Shoo, you stupid bird!"

"Jake, relax. It's only a Picky. Its one of the lousiest monsters around here."

"Just kill it! Owie, it bit me!"

Lena Zamoria picked a smooth and shiny stone off the desert ground and deftly flung it at the Picky who was angrily chasing after a screaming Jake. The Picky stopped in mid-squeak and promptly collapsed on the sand.

"Phew. Thanks mom. Can we get home now? Pleeaase? I'm thirsty!"

"Jake, it's only been half an hour you know. You'll never become a thief I you continue training at this rate. Sigh… Well, I guess you have one more week before you have to go for your Thief Ability Test. C'mon, let's go home."

Lena was one of the most respected Assassins in not just Morroc, but almost the whole of Southwest Rune-Midgard. There was only one Assassin well-trained then her, and that was her loving husband, Raven Zamoria. They had both expected their almost-superhuman talent to rub off on their twelve-year old child but so far, his greatest talent was growing desert flowers. Jake had a huge collection of desert plants in his room, maybe a bit too much for a Thief. He was also amazingly non-streetwise.

"Ooh, a pretty cactus, it looks so nice!"

Lena's well-trained desert-sense immediately flew back to her first lesson on desert creatures_. "Do not be fooled by this cactus' guise, or you'll end up decorating its spines"_

"Jake! Get away from it! It's not a cactus!" Jake immediately jumped back in fright, just as the Muka sucked in air to become a huge yellow balloon. The next moment, it immediately used its accumulated air to blow out all its spines at breakneck speed. Lena Zamoria grabbed Jake and pulled him to the ground, causing the spines flew past harmlessly overhead. She used her foot to kick the cactus viciously, causing it to double over. She flipped up and threw three knives at it in quick succession before landing on her feet. Before the Muka hit the ground, she already tied her jet-black hair back into an impeccable ponytail.

"Jake? Where are you? JAKE!" Lena swung around wildly, expecting her son to be caught in another life-threatening struggle with another desert creature. She saw her son and immediately let out a huge sigh of relief. Jake was crouching on the ground, admiring a small patch of violet desert blooms. She grabbed his hand exasperatedly and dragged her whining child home.

"Jake, we have to talk. We have to leave home tomorrow. We will be leaving you with your Aunt Yaori for three months. I hope you won't make life too difficult for her." "What! Aunt Yaori? She's a crazy old Alchemist! She'll make me drink all sorts of weird health tonics and her house is creepy! It's totally filled with weird bottles and experiments! Please, don't make me stay with her!"

"Listen Jake," Raven Zamoria grabbed his son by the shoulders and glared at him with his striking purple eyes, "We really hate leaving you here too, but King Tristan III has personally asked us to help slay Baphomet. You know how deadly it can be to people, even entire cities! We are the most experienced Assassins in the area, so we have to help. I hope you understand."

"No I don't! Both of you are always too busy with your own work to notice me! I hate both of you!" With that, Jake flung himself out of his chair up the stairs, rushed out of the front door and slammed it angrily. His stinging remark left both his usually quick-minded parents stunned with shock. For two of the most powerful killers in Morroc, taking care of young children was not something they were particularly good at.


End file.
